Laughing merrily, the young people set off for Miss Sharp's.

The home was a comfortable one, with attractive grounds, for the elder Sharp was a well-to-do merchant. Some three score of young people were present, and of these nearly two thirds had belonged to the High School student body in the old High School days of d.i.c.k and Greg. Naturally, the young ladies outnumbered the young men by more than four to one.

"Oh, I am delighted that you two have come," cried Susie, moving forward to greet her cadet visitors. This was wholly true, for Miss Sharp had planned the affair solely in order to have the distinction of entertaining the young West Pointers. Had d.i.c.k and Greg remained away, Susie, without doubt, would have been both disappointed and humiliated.

Through the connecting drawing rooms d.i.c.k and Greg moved with a grace and lack of consciousness greatly in contrast with their semi-awkwardness in their earlier High School days. Many pleasant acquaintances were renewed here.

Suddenly, Susie, catching a glimpse of the front walk, hastened out into the hallway. Then she came in, smiling eagerly, a well-dressed, pompous-looking young man at her side.

"Mr. Prescott! Mr. Holmes!" called Susie. "Here is an old comrade whom you both may be surprised to meet!"

d.i.c.k and Greg turned, and indeed, they were astonished. For the latest arrival was Bert Dodge!

"Howdy, fellows!" called Dodge carelessly, though inwardly he was quaking with alarm. How would these two decent cadets treat the fellow who had been kicked out of West Point for dishonorable acts?

Prescott bowed, but did not speak. Greg's line of conduct was identical with his chum's.

Bert turned white, at first, with mortification. Then a red flush set in at his neck, extending to his face and temples. But Dodge possessed "bra.s.s," if not honor, so he decided to face it out.

Turning to a young woman standing nearby, Bert spoke to her, and they laughed and chatted. From her, Bert pa.s.sed through the room nodding here, chatting there.

d.i.c.k and Greg, after the first look of amazement, followed by their cold bows, had turned to the old friends with whom they had been chatting.

In the course of a few minutes Bert Dodge had got along close to the two cadets.

"How are you, Prescott?" called Bert. "How is good old West Point?

And you, Holmes---how are you?"

Dodge held out his hand with all the effrontery of which he was capable.

Turning, d.i.c.k gave the sneak only a cold, steady look.

CHAPTER II

BRa.s.s MEETS GOLD

Neither d.i.c.k nor Greg took the trouble to answer the greeting.

Dodge's outstretched hand both cadets affected not to see.

As it happened, few of the others present noted this brief little scene.

A natural break in the crowd left d.i.c.k alone for the moment, with Holmes standing not far away and looking coldly in the direction of the ex-cadet, yet not appearing to see him at all.

"Well, what's the matter?" hissed Dodge in an undertone that the other guests did not hear. "Are you going to make a fool of yourself, Prescott?"

"You'd better execute a right-about face and make double-time away from here," replied d.i.c.k in a freezing undertone. "Otherwise I don't believe the guests will fail to observe how West Pointers regard a convicted sneak."

"Are you going to open your mouth and do a lot of talking?" whispered Dodge menacingly. "Or are you going to keep your tongue behind your teeth?"

"I can't undertake to lower myself by making any promises to a sneak," retorted d.i.c.k, still in an undertone. "But I warn you that any further conversation I have with you will be carried on in ordinary conversational tones. And if you undertake to remain, we shall be obliged to inform our hostess that we regret our inability to stay any longer."

Conscious that others were probably looking their way, Bert Dodge tried to make his face as expressionless as possible.

"See here, Prescott-----" the fellow began coaxingly.

But d.i.c.k turned and walked away. Greg, very stiff and straight, moved at his friend's side.

Afraid of what others might notice, Dodge pa.s.sed on. He presently reached a door leading into the hallway. Here he remained briefly.

Then, when he believed himself to be un.o.bserved, he slipped out, took his hat and got away.

A few minutes later, as d.i.c.k and Greg pa.s.sed the door of a little reception room, Susie Sharp called them in quietly. They found her there alone.

"Oh, Mr. Prescott! Mr. Holmes! Have I made any mistake, I thought it would be a pleasant surprise to you both if I had Mr. Dodge here to meet you, as you all three were cla.s.smates at West Point. But I should have remembered that in the old High School days you two and Mr. Dodge were not the best of friends."

There was an agitated catch in Susie's voice. Their young hostess was worried by the thought that she had invited jarring elements to meet.

"Why, to be candid, I don't believe Dodge ever admired either Greg or myself very much, replied Cadet Prescott evenly.

"But did I make a fearful mistake?" pleaded Susie.

"One cannot make a mistake who aims at the pleasure of others,"

d.i.c.k answered smilingly.

Somewhat rea.s.sured, Susie asked her cadet guests to return with her to the drawing rooms. There they joined a little group, and were chatting when a girl's voice reached them from a few feet away. The girl who was speaking did not realize that her tones carried as far as the ears of d.i.c.k and Greg as she explained to two other young women:

"Mr. Dodge said he resigned from the Military Academy because he could not stand the crowd there."

"I guess that's true," muttered d.i.c.k inwardly. "The crowd couldn't stand Dodge, either."

But Sam Foss made the conversation general by calling:

"How about that, d.i.c.k! I always thought West Point was a very select place. Bessie Frost says Dodge left West Point because he thought the fellows there rather below his grade socially."

"Perhaps they are," nodded d.i.c.k gravely, but in even tones. "I have heard it stated that about sixty per cent. of the cadets are the sons of wage-earners. Indeed, one of the cadets whom I most respect has not attempted to conceal the fact that, until he graduates and begins to draw officer's pay, his mother will have to continue to support herself at the washtub. That young man is now in the first cla.s.s, and I can tell you that we are all mighty anxious to see that man graduate and find himself where he can look after a n.o.ble mother who has the misfortune to be unusually poor in purse."

"Then as an American, I'm proud of West Point, if it has fellows with no more false shame than that," cried Foss heartily.

"Why, I always thought West Point a very swell place, extremely so," murmured Bessie Frost. "In fact--pardon me, won't you---I have always heard that the young men at West Point are very much puffed up and very exclusive."

d.i.c.k laughed good-humoredly.

"Of course, Miss Frost, the cadet is expected to learn how to become a gentleman as well as an officer. Yet why should any of us feel unduly conceited? We are privileged to secure one of the best educations to be obtained in the world, but we obtain it at public expense. Not only our education, but all our living expenses are paid for out of the nation's treasury, and that money is contributed by all tax-payers alike. If we of the cadet corps should get any notion that we belong to a superior race of beings, to whom would we owe it all? Are the cadets not indebted for their opportunities to all the citizens of the United States?"

"Did Bert Dodge have any especial trouble at West Point?" asked another girl.

"Mr. Dodge did not make us his confidants," evaded d.i.c.k coolly.